In the case of a severe accident, such as a motor vehicle accident, the large blood vessels of the body, such as the aorta, may become damaged with accompanying severe hematoma in the region of the damage. Such damage may be termed a transection. In a transection the wall of the large vessels, such as the aorta, is damaged and is necessary for surgeon to perform an open chest surgery to repair the torn aorta. Because of the hematoma it may take some time for a surgeon to locate the area of the actual transection and make a suitable repair and in this time significant blood loss can occur.
It is the object of this invention to provide a blood bypass system to give the surgeon more time to make the necessary repair in the case of an emergency transection operation.
Throughout this specification the term distal with respect to a portion of the aorta, a deployment device or a prosthesis means the end of the aorta, deployment device or prosthesis further away in the direction of blood flow away from the heart and the term proximal means the portion of the aorta, deployment device or end of the prosthesis nearer to the heart. When applied to other vessels similar terms such as caudal and cranial should be understood.